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Web Site Design Article :-
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Miscellaneous Website
Design Tips
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| Keep
it Simple! |
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The kind of website you make depends on the kind of target market
you are trying to reach. Unless your target market comprises of
teenagers or any other group that needs a jazzy snazzy website,
we would recommend keeping it simple. This rule applies especially
if you are a professional company.
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| Navigation |
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Make sure your navigation is simple ... a menu, either text
or graphical should be available on each page ... if your
site is huge, make sure visitors at all times know which section
they are in and provide simple, easy to find links that lead
them back to the main page and/or other sections.
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| Font
Sizes |
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It is recommended that you do not fix the font size. There
are many surfers out there who have problems reading smaller
text. They set their text preferences accordingly. By fixing
the font size you overwrite their preferences and thus make
it impossible for them to browse your website. Plus this can
also end up annoying potential customers who do not like their
settings tampered with.
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| Load
Time |
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Surprising as it may sound but there are still people browsing
with 14.4K modems. Not everyone has a DSL cable modem connection.
A lot of people do not even have a 56K connection. A lot of
people who have 56K or 33.6K modems and can have a fast connection
are hampered by their telephone lines which are not capable
of transferring data at that rate. Add to that a fast paced
world where people do not have time to wait around for pages
to load. Therefore, it is recommended that your page (including
the HTML page and graphics) should not be more than 50 K in
size.
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| Screen
Resolutions |
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There are three major screen resolutions: 640x480, 800x600
and 1024x768.
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your website at all three resolutions. Don't just design for
one resolution assuming that if your monitor is set at that
resolution then everyone else's is, too. There are still a lot
of people surfing at a 640x480 screen resolution, some by choice
and others because they do not know how to change the resolution.
Please remember that 640x480 is the default screen resolution
in most monitors. If your website is designed for a larger screen
resolution only, then a horizontal scroll bar will appear for
lower resolutions. A lot of people leave at the site of a horizontal
scroll bar. |
| In
Windows 95/98/Me: |
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Right click on your desktop.
Click on properties.
Click on the settings tab.
You can change your monitor's resolution by sliding the bar
for Screen Area.
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| On
a MAC: |
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Apple Menu > Control Panels > Monitors > Choose Setting
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| Frames
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Why frames don't work? Firstly they increase load time as
two pages are being loaded instantly which can be a problem
for those with slow connections. Secondly frames take up space
especially if you have more than 2. Imagine the effects of
that at a screen resolution of 640x480. Plus no one likes
two scroll bars ... you can of course put it at no scroll
but again there is the problem of screen resolutions, if the
frame is longer than a certain size, no scrolling would mean
that a lot of people cannot see the bottom half (since they
would not be able to scroll). It can be very difficult to
get the perfect layout using frames and making sure that they
work at all resolutions.
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| Animation
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Unless you are making a site for teenagers or gamers try to
keep animation at a minimum. It drives attention away from
your content which should be the main focus of your site.
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| Links
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Open links that lead out of your site in a new window. You
can do this by placing a 'target=_blank' in the 'a href' tag.
This way visitors can get to browse new links as well as stick
around at your site.
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| Banner
Exchange : |
If you have banners at your site, make sure there is none on
your front page ... that may take away your visitor before they
have had time to explore your site. Keep the banners for the
inner pages, preferably towards the bottom of the page ... you
don't want visitors to run away before they have even started
exploring your website. |
| Top
of Page |
If your pages are quite long, always have a link to the top
of the page at the bottom ... that makes browsing easier for
the visitor. Another option is to give text links at the bottom
so that the visitor does not have to scroll all the way up for
the menu. |
| Table
Tricks : |
Did you know that you can get great results by just playing
around with tables. Place one table inside another. Make the
background colors of both tables different. Now play around
with three table attributes: cellpadding, cellspacing and borders
... you can get some great results this way! |
[Please note: Netscape may not show some of these results the
same way. Since that does not take much away from your website
there is no harm in using them] |
| Website
Image : |
Does your website project an image ... and not just an image
but the kind you want it to portray? Did you want it to look
friendly and welcoming and does it look boring and dull? A website
can be given an image by just manipulating color, layout and
design of the website. Make sure you pick the right colors ...
for example Red is a vibrant color, Blue is calm and peaceful
... hues can also make the difference ... different color combinations
provide different results. Fonts can also help portray a jovial
mood or reinforce a professional look. Use all these elements
wisely to get the right look. |
| Speech
Friendly Websites : |
Did you know that blind people surfed the net using Speech Friendly
Technology? Their speech readers read out the text on the screen.
But there are a few things that hamper their visiting these
sites ... bells and whistles like javascript, frames, no alt
tags, etc. make it difficult for a blind person to surf the
web. It is not very difficult to make a site speech friendly.
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